Comedy Fans Can Catch a Rising Star : Entertainment: The famous New York club quietly opens a branch at Universal Studios. But it’s venturing into a region where others have failed.

Survival has been no laughing matter for comedy clubs in the San Fernando Valley.

A series of clubs has come and gone over the last decade. In the late 1980s, two heavyweights from over the hill--Mitzi Shore’s Comedy Store and Budd Friedman’s Improv--opened Valley branches that fell short of belly laughs and went belly up within a couple years.

Now comes another contender, an out-of-towner.

Catch a Rising Star, the granddaddy of comedy clubs in New York, opened an intimate room last weekend at Universal Studios. Its debut was inconspicuous--the club won’t start advertising for another week or so--but word got around and sellout audiences showed up to see the likes of Richard Belzer and “Saturday Night Live” regular Kevin Nealon.

Most of the performers were past and present regulars from the New York club, and a few of them exhibited culture shock at being in the Valley. When a woman in the audience told comic Bill Maher that she was a student at “CSUN,” he got a quizzical look on his face.

“CSUN?” Maher asked. “That sounds more like a tanning lotion than an institute of higher learning.”

The new club is a joint venture between Universal Studios and the owners of Catch a Rising Star, Rick Newman and Richard Fields, who had long desired to open a West Coast club.

“Coming to California took 20 years,” Newman said. “A long time ago, when the Improv came out here and Mitzi opened the Comedy Store and there was the Laugh Factory and Igby’s, well, there was an explosion of comedy clubs. We didn’t want to be just another guy on the block.”

Newman and Fields decided to make the leap only after working out their deal with Universal, which provides the space in a section of Victoria Station restaurant and is handling the food and the bar.

The Comedy Store’s unsuccessful branch was also located in Universal City, but it was in a hotel some distance from the tour grounds. Catch a Rising Star is just outside the tour entrance and will likely glean some tourists for its shows each night from Thursday through Sunday. And by August, the club will become part of the tour by offering six short shows each day.

“This was an opportunity we couldn’t turn down,” said Joan Bullard, a studio spokeswoman. “We already have the amphitheater and movie theaters and restaurants, so why not add comedy?”

The western version of Catch a Rising Star retains a decidedly New York ambience, with checkered table cloths and candles. It seats only about 100 people, which means everyone is close to the stage.

Next to the showroom is a bar where patrons can watch the performers through a glass partition and listen to the jokes that are piped in through speakers.

The original Catch a Rising Star spawned such comedians as David Brenner, Billy Crystal, Joe Piscopo and the late Andy Kaufman. Newman and Fields hope to fill their shows with Catch veterans.

“The comedy community in L.A. is 50-50,” Newman said. “Half the comics out here are from New York. We’ve built strong relationships with all these people.”

But the newcomers may face a struggle, said Ray Bishop, owner of L.A. Cabaret in Encino, which along with the L.A. Connection in Sherman Oaks is the patriarch of Valley comedy clubs. Valley residents, he said, have a habit of going over the hill to get their entertainment. Also, these are tough economic times.

“People just aren’t spending money,” said Bishop, who has run his club for 11 years. “If we were new, we’d be out of business because we wouldn’t have our regular customers.”

And that’s no joke.

Catch a Rising Star is located in Victoria Station restaurant at Universal Studios. Shows are 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, with additional 10 p.m. shows on Friday and Saturday. Admission is $5 with a two-drink minimum. Call (818) 777-0272.